Using the rights contained in the Freedom of Information Act, we collected data on the teaching undertaken by staff at 52 UK universities. In contrast to workload modelling, our data reveals the extent of the variation in contact hours by institution, subject, and seniority. We provide for the first time an accurate measure of the teaching…

Sessional academic staff form most of the teaching staff cohort in Australian universities. The available literature supports that this important staff cohort often experience precarious and insecure work, restricted access to training, support and development, and limited opportunities for career progression (compared to their colleagues in…

There is a need to understand sessional staff experiences of professional development in universities, and as academic developers play a key part in university teaching and learning, they are well placed to provide this insight. The aim of this phenomenological study was to explore academic developers' perceptions of support and development for…

A large and increasing proportion of teaching in UK universities is being fulfilled by staff on casual, rather than permanent, contracts. This paper examines how the proportion of teaching by casual staff affected student satisfaction in 2014-15. We find that an increased proportion of casual teaching leads to lower student satisfaction, even when…

This paper aims to further explore the impact of need and culture as they relate to orientation, training, development, and administrative policies on regional university adjunct faculty. The use of adjunct faculty has risen considerably over recent years making their university experience more relevant in today's higher education climate. Adjunct…

Adjunct faculty at colleges and universities in the U.S. are quickly outnumbering full-time faculty. This new faculty majority often struggles with low pay and sub-par working conditions. Recognizing this issue has a number of negative impacts for higher education, researchers at a comprehensive university in the southeastern United States…

Consensus moderation is an approach to quality assurance where collaboration and discussion take place to agree mark allocation. This study explored sessional academics' perceptions and experiences of consensus moderation in higher education. Data from four focus groups were analysed using Foucauldian Discourse Analysis. The findings reveal four…

Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between community college department chairs and their adjunct faculty. Methods: This was a descriptive phenomenological qualitative study that used individual semi-structured interviews of 14 department chairs from a purposive sample drawn from a midwestern community college.…

This article explores gendered day-to-day lived experiences of (relatively) marginalised teaching-only academic staff on insecure contracts through the lens of space and place. It stems from a collaborative auto-ethnography focusing on the experience of two UK early-career academics on temporary contracts (at the time of this research) who occupy…

As online courses and degree program offerings at colleges and universities continue to grow, further exploration of the unique characteristics of distance education faculty is warranted. For example, research suggests faculty job satisfaction can impact the overall quality of online courses (Bolliger & Martindale, 2004; Bolliger et al.,…

Students experience challenges with persistence, retention, graduation, and overall academic success in colleges and universities, particularly when courses are taught by adjunct instructors. Using a sample of 21,274 student results in three different general education disciplines from 2010 to 2019, the authors found that there was a disparity…

Drawing on a case study of media technology, this article addresses theory-practice conflict in an educational work setting. This conflict is expressed in employment contracts and career opportunities and in how professional identity is made. We demonstrate how ideas about practical and theoretical knowledge are negotiated in the academic career…

Community colleges are trending toward a decrease in full-time faculty and an increase in adjunct faculty. Using 2019-2020 IPEDS data from 853 community colleges, researchers explored the relationship between full-time faculty and community college student retention, and combined graduation and transfer rate. Results demonstrated that proportion…

This article describes the transition of a Learning Community for adjunct faculty from an in-person professional development program to a virtual experience necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Preliminary findings show support for our goals of enhancing teaching effectiveness while building community among an interdisciplinary cohort of adjunct…

Sessional staff are commonly excluded from opportunities which can enhance their professional development, despite being responsible for the majority of university teaching. For educators teaching in widening participation or enabling programs, this can create additional separation or feelings of being 'illegitimate'. This article interrupts such…